Page 5 of Her Obsessed Lumberjack

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, breathing hard. “Didn’t see you there. You okay? Not hurt?”

Now that she’s standing up, I can see her body more clearly, and my mouth goes dry as I take in her plump thighs and thick waist. She’s wearing jeans and a sweater, but the simple outfit looks fucking incredible, hugging her soft curves. My gaze lingers on her necklace—it’s an odd shape, but it’s too dark to make it out.

“I…I’m okay!” the girl says eventually, her sweet voice making my chest ache. “Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I didn’t see you either. I got lost…there was a clown…” She’s talking so fast that I can barely keep up, her eyes darting all over the place. She takes a step away from me and stumbles a little, almost falling back into the corn. I step forward, ready to help her, but she rights herself with a laugh.

“I’m okay.”

She looks nervous as hell, and it suddenly occurs to me that she’s probably afraid. I’m a big guy—tall and broad—and we’re all alone in a shadowy corner of this corn maze. I want to make her feel safe. The instinct hits me like a tidal wave, and I rackmy brain, trying to think of something I can say that will put her at ease. But a second later, a voice calls out from somewhere nearby.

“Freya!”

The girl instantly turns around.

“That’s my friend,” she says. “I should go…sorry again for running into you like that…”

“You don’t need to be sorry.”

I feel a tug of desperation in my gut. I don’t want her to leave. There’s something about her…her laugh, her smile, her sweet little voice…I’m drawn to her in a way that I can’t explain. My cock swells as she looks up at me, blood rushing downward until I’m aching for her. She’s so fucking beautiful. I can’t stop staring. Those chocolate-brown eyes look almost golden in the dim light of the lantern, and my hands clench as I resist the urge to reach out and touch her.

“FREYA!”

The voice from before rings out again, closer this time. It jolts me back to reality, my head spinning as the girl turns from me.

“I…um…see you!” she says, hurrying away before I can say a word in reply. My mind is racing, and I stand there for several minutes, staring at the place where she vanished.

Freya.

It’s a pretty name. Beautiful, like the girl it belongs to. Her face is imprinted on my mind: doe eyes, plump lips, purple hair—so dark it looked almost black. And those curves…every inch of her was soft and thick and so fucking gorgeous.

I’ve never had any interest in women or dating before. I always put my career first, dedicating myself to being the best cop I could be. Then when I adopted Chloe, being her dad moved to the top of my priority list. That’s how things have been for as long as I can remember. But Freya has ignited a spark. She’s stirred up something inside me, something I’ve never felt before.It’s nuts. I don’t even know this girl, but I can’t shake the thought of her.

I want her.

So fucking badly.

But you’ll probably never see her again,I think to myself bitterly.

Cherry Hollow is a small town, but I keep to the forest most of the time, alone. Hell, even if I saw Freya every day, it wouldn’t change anything. She looks about the same age as my daughter, goddammit—far too young for a middle-aged man like me.

I try to calm the storm that’s raging inside me, resolving to find Chloe and Trace and finally get out of this damn maze. I take a step forward, about to follow the same path Freya took a few minutes ago, when a dark shape catches my eye. Something is dangling from a nearby cornstalk, just visible beneath the pale glow of a lantern. I lean in closer and recognize it immediately as the necklace Freya was wearing. It must have been ripped off her neck when she stumbled against the corn.

Gently, I pull it free and examine it, squinting against the darkness. It’s a wooden pendant, roughly carved into the shape of half a love heart, and my stomach sinks unpleasantly as I look at it. It’s obviously one of two halves. No doubt her boyfriend wears the other half.

The son of a bitch. He has no idea how fucking lucky he is.

Knowing Freya belongs to someone else makes me feel a lot worse than it should. She’s a stranger, that’s all. A girl I bumped into in a corn maze. But despite all that, there was a connection—something deep inside that I can’t explain, an intense need I’ve never felt before.

I pocket the necklace, looking out for Freya as I continue through the maze. I’m determined to return it to her, even if I hate thinking of some guy wearing the other half.

After a few more twists and turns, I run into Chloe and Trace.

“Dad!” she says. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Sorry, Coco. Took a wrong turn.”

“We found the exit,” Trace says. “There’s a food truck out front selling pumpkin pie.”

Chloe shivers as a masked man races past us, then reaches out to take my arm. “Come on, Dad, I’m officially spooked out. Let’s go eat some pie.”

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